


Protecting Your Body and SOUL

by Viddaric



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Actually more like monologue-only, Dialogue-Only, Headcanon explanations for game mechanics, In her own way you know?, Monster culture, Post-Canon, Self-Defense, Souls, Undertale Monsters on the Surface, Undyne is doing her part to improve human/monster relations, self-defense class
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-11
Updated: 2017-10-08
Packaged: 2018-12-26 12:33:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12059079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viddaric/pseuds/Viddaric
Summary: Undyne teaches self-defense in a world of both humans and monsters.





	1. Introductions

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not sure how far I'm going to take this yet. However, I'm planning on each chapter being self-contained and mostly stand-alone, so any of them could be a good stopping point. Just saying, I'm not going to start some kind of big epic story here and then leave it unfinished for months. I mostly just wanted to do some character writing and share some headcanon ideas in an interesting and fun way.
> 
> Update: I have no plans to update this further, but I think it stands pretty well as-is. Might come back to this idea someday, but it's doubtful.

“ALRIGHT NERDS, LISTEN UP! We’re gonna get into the training in a minute, but first I need to get some things straight, make sure we understand each other, yeah?

NUMBER ONE! This is a HIGH INTENSITY self-defense course! As long as class is in session, I expect you to be giving ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! Now, if you’re giving one hundred percent and that’s still not enough, talk to me about it, but if you’re only giving ninety-nine, I. WILL. KNOW! So, if you were looking for something more laid back, you have come to the wrong place!

NUMBER TWO! This is a course in self-defense! That means defending yourself, and anyone else nearby who’s in danger! This is _not_ a martial arts course! What I will be teaching will be mostly practical, and focused less on defeating an opponent and more on protecting your body and SOUL! Now, we will be practicing _some_ forms of offensive combat, both for sparring and more practical uses, and these will be focused mostly on submission, deflection, and incapacitation. HOWEVER! These techniques are secondary. Our primary goal is to teach you what you need to know to get out of a fight with as little damage to yourself and others as possible. So if you wanted to learn how to beat people up, you’re probably a jerk and should not be here!

NUMBER THREE! This is a class of both humans and monsters, and for both humans and monsters. That means that there will be both human vs human combat and monster vs monster combat covered. I expect EVERYONE to pay attention to BOTH! There will also be human vs monster combat, and this may be uncomfortable on both sides. For humans, this means facing magic and fighting with your SOUL as well as your body. For monsters, this means willingly engaging in combat with someone who could potentially dust you in a single strike if they really, really meant it! I will be taking tons of safety measures and keeping a very careful eye on you all to make sure nothing bad happens, but anyone who doesn’t think they’re ready… well, talk to me first, because there’s no way to overcome your fears like facing them head on, but if you’re not prepared to put aside the fear so great it started The War, I can’t really blame you.

NOW, if you’re still here, CONGRATULATIONS, you’re awesome enough to accept my training! But before we get into fighting, I need to teach you about NOT fighting!

This is your first lesson: the easiest way to avoid getting hurt in a fight is to _not fight at all!_ As a certain friend of mine taught me, the easiest way to end a fight is to simply not participate. If you have the choice between fighting someone and just running away, you’d better have a damn good reason to choose to fight! There is no shame in avoiding violence if doing so is the less dangerous option. So, we’ll be warming up every session with some running! I want to see your BEST HUSTLE, and I’d damn well better see it! DON’T MAKE ME GET OUT THE SPEARS! SPEARS ARE THE BEST WAY TO ENCOURAGE FAST RUNNING! NOW MOVE IT!”

* * *

“Okay, now that we’re all FIRED UP, it’s time to go over the first and most important element of self defense in a world of both humans and monsters: DODGING! This is the skill we’re going to be practicing the most, so you’d best get used to it now! And yes, that does include both the monsters and the humans! This is probably unusual for everyone; most human martial arts favor blocks over dodges, and monsters would usually rather raise a shield or just throw more magic. These options work fine in human vs human and monster vs monster conflicts, but let’s be honest, most of you are here because you want to be better at human vs monster fighting! Oh don’t be so embarrassed, it’s smart to be prepared for the unknown, and no one’s going to hate you for being smart! Now, the reasoning behind favoring dodging over blocking or magic is different for humans and monsters, but the core idea of dodging is the same: you don’t want to be where the attacks are! And to help you learn how to evade anything that comes your way, I have trained tirelessly with the two greatest dodging masters ever! Honestly they would probably be teaching you themselves, but one is both very busy and probably wouldn’t have the heart to give you any attacks to dodge in the first place, and the other is way too much of a LAZYBONES! NGAAAHHH!

So, for a nice little introduction to dodging, we’re going to play a simple human game: DODGEBALL! And the teams will be… ALL OF YOU AGAINST ME! AND THE GAME STARTS RIGHT NOW!”

* * *

 “Well, you all lasted longer than I thought you would. It’s a good start! And I’ll give the monsters a break for cheating with magic, but only because I surprised you. Next time, no external magic allowed! As for the humans, you’ve just gotten a pretty mild taste of what a basic monster fight can be, though real monster attacks are much cooler than these boring dodgeballs! Some monsters use more physical attacks, but most will summon magical projectiles, usually called ‘bullets’. They’re not as deadly as lead bullets though.

Now for a quick culture lesson for the humans: just because a monster summons bullets does not mean that they want to hurt you. In fact, most monsters are about as dangerous to humans as a wet noodle. And for those of you who’ve seen my side project, _Battlefield Kitchen_ , a wet noodle NOT cooked by me or Papyrus! Some of you may have done your research, others may be clueless, but here’s an important little factoid: our bodies are MADE of magic. Magic is literally WHO WE ARE! OUR INNERMOST SOULS MADE SOLID! Magic comes as naturally to us as breathing! So we sometimes use it as a greeting; the human equivalent would probably be a handshake or a hi-five. That’s not a perfect example though. A monster’s magic is how they express themselves, and bullets can show off anything from their interests to their emotions to their values! Plus they look really cool, especially when another monster matches them! Exchanging a few bullets is nice, but close friends sometimes do more drawn out displays that might even resemble full-on fights! There’s no better way for a monster to express themselves to another monster than with a strong magical barrage!

Of course, humans _can’t_ match bullets with monsters, and most monsters should know this. So a monster summoning bullets for a human is… a bit rude to say the least. Here’s the thing though: before the Barrier broke, most monsters had never even _seen_ a human. So there is a… distinct… possibility… that a monster might think you’re another monster. Or might just lack the sensory ability to identify you as a human. Like seriously, roll around in the mud for a little while and you’ll smell like a dog monster to at least half the dogs you meet! So if a monster attacks you and there isn’t anything obviously malicious about it, the first thing you should do is tell them you’re a human, and in all likelihood they’ll stop and be very embarrassed. Now, if they DON’T stop, you should probably try to get away or subdue them, but I’d be incredibly surprised if that happened. Buuut it never hurts to be prepared, and that’s what you’re all in this class for!

ANYWAY! Boring talking time is over! Now I’m gonna show you some better dodging techniques, and then we go for round two!”

* * *

 “You all did really great today! I believe you all have the DRIVE to succeed in my class and be real formidable fighters! But before you go, I’ve got some homework for ya! First of all, do the warm-up exercises we did today at least twice before we meet again next week. Second of all, I want every human here to learn something you didn’t know about monsters, and every monster to learn something you didn’t know about humans. I don’t care how you find it out. The best way is to just ask someone, but if you don’t know any monsters or you don’t know any humans, you can just use the undernet. I mean internet. Whatever. I expect you all to have something to share with everyone else next session! CLASS DISMISSED!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, questions, comments, and criticisms are welcome and appreciated. If you want to see more of this, please let me know; I've got a few other projects kicking around, but if you want me to focus more on this one, tell me so.


	2. Strong SOULs

“Alright, here’s the gameplan for today: we’re gonna start doing the prep work necessary so that we can really get into human vs monster fights. And if we’re going to do that, all of you need to know just how dangerous you are.

Magic, in general, responds to intent. If we want our magic to hurt, it’ll hurt. If we want it to heal, it’ll heal. But our bodies are also made of magic, and those also respond to intent. The problem is that it does not have to be our own intent. If someone really, deeply, truly wants to kill us, our bodies respond to that. By dying. We monsters are normally a hardy bunch; it takes a lot to hurt us, and we heal very quickly. But faced with a strong soul with malicious intent...  A single strike can be enough to kill. Now, none of this should be a problem in this class, because I’m making the rash assumption that none of you are COLD BLOODED MURDERERS! But just to be safe, we’ll be practicing some attacks on these dummies to make sure that you’re all free of deep-seeded homicidal tendencies! Plus I’ll be observing your technique and making sure that’s up to snuff as well, so don’t get sloppy on me!

Now, on the flip side, the monsters will also need to be careful. Magical attacks have some effect on the body, but much more on the SOUL, which is a problem when dealing with humans. Human SOULs are very physically and emotionally strong, but very magically weak. Even with no killing intent behind them, magic attacks can still harm the human SOUL when a monster SOUL would just shrug them off. Fortunately, human SOULs heal from injury much faster than human bodies do. Some good food and a little rest will bring most human SOULs to full health. Hell, monster food will usually do it instantly! This does not change the fact that even small monster attacks do damage to human SOULs, and if that damage stacks up too much unchecked and unhealed, you die. I will NOT allow that to happen. Today, I want the monsters here to practice fine control over their attacks! These targets are specially designed to measure the power of your bullets, and I want to get a good feeling for your maximums and minimums. Hopefully by the end of the day, you’ll be able to throw out your biggest and most complicated bullet patterns with little to no actual force behind them! All the flash, none of the pain! That’s what we’ll be using for sparring, but I also want you to focus on power control. Basically, the goal is to be able to use attacks that are strong enough to disable, not strong enough to actually be dangerous.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this stuff is the reason why we’re going to do so much dodging. Your SOUL will get hurt even if you block a magic attack with your physical body, and a truly spiteful human will cut through every magical defense you can muster. Dodging solves both those problems. We’ll do some more of that if we have extra time after this.

Alright now, EVERYONE LINE UP AND GET YOUR FIGHTING FACES ON!”

* * *

 

“Maddie… what are you doing here? I know you’re concerned for your cousins, but there’s literally nothing to worry about! Ghost monsters can’t even get hurt by physical attacks, and you _know_ that they can’t! Now scram! You’re scaring- IS THAT A KNIFE!? DAMMIT STOP THREATENING MY STUDENTS YOU COTTON-STUFFED SPAZ! NGAAAHH!

* * *

 

“Well, like it or not, looks like you all got to see an example of a monster vs monster fight. I hope you liked my supercharged suplex, because I sure did! Anyway, don’t worry about them, they’re like that with everyone they don’t know. I’ll make sure to give them a proper smackdown later. Now let’s get back to practice!”

* * *

 

“Well, I’d say you all did great, but frankly most of you have terrible fighting form. BUT THAT’S WHY I’M HERE! NEXT TIME WE CAN REALLY GET OUR FIGHTING SPIRITS BURNING! YEAH!

More importantly, you all have good self control! You’re all ready to move on to the next step! Next week, you’re all going to see what monster vs human fighting is like! And I’m going to teach you how to do it right! Overcome your fears! FACE YOUR DEMONS! WIN! BE THE BEST! BELIEVE IN YOURSELF! MAKE ANIME REAL!

Uh… Maybe not that last one. But I know that you all can do this. It’ll be scary. You might be scared of getting hurt. You might be scared of hurting someone else. And I want you all to hold onto both of those fears, because being afraid of pain makes you a _sane_ person, and being afraid of hurting others makes you a _good_ person. But I also want you to ACT, even when you’re afraid, because that’s what true courage is. It won’t be easy, but I know you all have the deter… the strength of character to do it.

Homework this week is the same as last. CLASS DISMISSED!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was going to add something about why monsters turn black-and-white when they're in combat, but then I realized that they also turn like that on dates and when sparing you, which made my explanation make no sense. Also doesn't explain why Undyne and Mettaton DON'T turn black-and-white when they're attacking you in the overworld. I tried to make it work but I couldn't get it to mesh with canon. Must be something about Frisk's (or The Player's) perception, not monster biology.


	3. The Color of Battle

“Okay, no more stalling, no more delaying! Today, we _spar!_ So let me go over the safety rules and we can get straight into it!

Firstly, any time you FIGHT, there is the potential, no matter how small, for someone to die. Considering how well you all controlled yourselves last week, the chances of this happening are pretty much zero, but it could still happen if someone does not check themselves. So if I tell you to stop fighting, you stop fighting. If your opponent wants you to stop fighting, you stop fighting. This is the most important rule, and if you break it, I kick you out of the class. Literally and figuratively. NO EXCEPTIONS!

Secondly, if you want to spar with someone, both you and they must be wearing a set of this special armor… and yes, I know it looks like it’s made of cardboard and construction paper. That’s because it is. But it’s also made of some very, very strong magic. It won’t quite stop one of MY spears, but anything short of that and it won’t even scratch. This is probably the best armor you can get unless you want to make the step up to a set of enchanted full plate mail, and since we’re going to be practicing dodging, that isn’t really an option. Additionally, this armor is enchanted with Green Magic, which means that even if you do somehow manage to get hurt through it, it’ll respond with a jolt of healing. All of this should be more than enough to keep anything bad from happening, but in case it isn’t, there’s a bowl of Monster Candies over in the corner. If you take a bad hit and start hurting, stop fighting immediately and have one.

Thirdly, this should go without saying considering what we've been practicing, but this is _low contact_ sparring. You want to hit your sparring partner exactly hard enough so that they know you hit them and no harder. You won’t get in trouble if you accidentally misjudge and deliver something more powerful than you intended, but if you keep having accidents like that, you don’t get to spar and get to work on your control instead while everyone else is having fun! Try not to let that happen! Oh, and avoid hitting weak points! Monsters that have them should point them out before fighting so that they can be avoided, and most humans have two: the head and the crotch. A crotch hit is one of the fastest ways to nonlethally disable a human, but it also hurts like hell, so don’t do it to your sparring partners unless you really like making enemies!

Fourthly and finally… actually this one isn’t a rule, it’s just a warning. When human and monster SOULs clash, there’s a strange effect on both of them. They sort of… resonate with each other, in a way. Now, there’s still tons of research going on about _why_ this happens and what causes it, and my girlfriend could probably explain it better than me, but the effect is that both the human and the monster can see each other’s SOULs and their own SOUL, through their body. For humans, this means there will be a colorful little heart shape beating in your chest, only in the center of your chest instead of off to the side like your actual heart is. Which is totally weird, by the way. For monsters… well, since our bodies are made of magic, and our magic comes from our SOULs, we’ll basically look the same, but since all monster SOULs are white, we look like pure-white versions of our normal selves. Now, this effect doesn’t just _happen_ when human and monster SOULs are near each other, or even when they attack each other. There has to be some deeper _engagement_ involved. I could sit here and chuck spears at you all day, but I wouldn’t be able to see your SOUL unless I was really _in a fight_ with you, if you know what I mean. What’s even weirder is that this doesn’t _just_ happen in fights either. The research around this is still going on and we’ve only seen one human who can demonstrate it reliably, but it seems that it can also happen when a human and monster engage with each other on a _social_ level as well, like a date or a personal conversation. A heart-to-heart, if you will.

...Dammit, I’ve been spending too much time with that bonehead.

ANYWAY, when we spar, you’re definitely going to see each other’s SOULs. So don’t freak out about it, that’s what’s supposed to happen. Oh, also, don’t worry about protecting the location of your SOUL from bullets; getting hit in the chest by magic has the exact same effect on your SOUL as getting hit in the arm, although it might hurt a little more physically. You definitely SHOULD be very careful not to let your SOUL get hit by physical attacks because that would be very painful, though I can’t imagine that happening with that armor on.

Now FIND A PARTNER AND LINE UP! I WANT TO SEE THE POWER OF YOUR SOULS IN ACTION!”

* * *

 

“Man, that looked like FUN! Sloppy, untrained fun, but FUN! We can start fixing that in a minute, but first I should make things a little more fair for the humans, since it looks like they were kinda getting wrecked out there. Monster magic is highly personalized anyway so my spear-throwing tips wouldn't help the monsters all that much. A lot of what the monsters will learn here is going to be based more on experience and experimentation, since the kind of magic attacks that work well on monsters are not the same as the kind that work well on humans. Just try new techniques and see how they work!

The humans though... you’re definitely at a disadvantage without magic. Fortunately for you, we monsters apparently keep better records than you do, even if they were kept for questionable reasons, so we remember how humans and monsters fought back in the pre-Barrier days.

You probably noticed that your SOULs come in different colors. Now, each of those colors has a purpose and an advantage in a FIGHT, so let’s go over them.

Light blue is the color of Patience. If you have a cyan SOUL, you can… well, have you ever played one of those Japanese bullet hell shooters? You know, the ones where you have this little spaceship, but you don’t die unless you get hit in the exact center of it? That’s you, as long as you’re standing still. If you’re not moving, monster bullets will just pass right through any part of you except your SOUL. Physical hits will still hurt though, so you’d better move if you see one of those coming!

Orange is the color of Bravery. Remember when I said that humans can’t answer monster bullet patterns other than by just avoiding them? Well orange SOULs can! If you meet a monster’s bullets with your own attacks, you’ll smack them right out of the air! Now that doesn’t work on EVERY monster bullet. It’d be a bad idea if you tried to punch one of the exploding ones. But if your SOUL is orange and you can’t dodge, you can face most bullets HEAD ON!

Dark blue is the color of Integrity. SOULs with Integrity are… I guess _heavier_ than other souls? Mostly that just means that they can take more of a beating than other SOULs, but they’re also a lot harder to phase with magic. They won’t just get back up again when they get knocked down, they’ll take a hit that would have knocked someone else down, and they’ll stay standing.

Purple is the color of Perseverance. This one is a lot harder to pin down than the others. Purple souls are… how to say this… untrappable? It’s a really subtle effect, but in a FIGHT with a purple SOUL, no matter how intricate and complex a monster makes their bullet patterns, there will always be a safe path through them. Bullets just sort of… fall into more predictable patterns around them. It’s kind of freaky honestly.

Green is the color of Kindness. This one is pretty straightforward if you know what green monster magic does: make shields and heal people. Green SOULed humans CAN block monster bullets with their tougher parts. Only partially though; your SOUL will still take damage if you block a bullet, just not nearly as much. It’s still a better idea to dodge if you can. Their SOULs also heal faster than most humans so that’s good too.

Yellow is the color of Justice. Yellow SOULs are a bit more focused on the offensive aspect. They were known to strike hard, fast, and mercilessly, barely giving monsters any time to think. And if you’re a Yellow soul, that’s what you should do too, minus the merciless part of course. And also minus the hard part too, come to think of it. Basically, you’re fast, so use that.

Lastly, red is the color of… well, honestly I don’t know, and I have a sneaking suspicion that the knowledge is classified. And considering that I was captain of the Royal Guard back in the Underground, the fact that I don’t know means that it’s HIGHLY classified. What I _do_ know is that red SOULed humans are probably the reason we lost the war. Almost every great human hero from that era had a red SOUL, and the stories say that they had this uncanny ability to see through our every surprise. They’d go up against impossible odds and beat them anyway. Honestly, they were our worst nightmares for a long time. Then along came Ambassador Frisk, who used that power to make friends instead. It’s kind of hard to tell horror stories about someone who turned out to be our salvation and the best person who ever lived. So yeah, I don’t know what the red SOUL’s power is, but whatever it is, it’s _strong_.

Hopefully all that serves to even the playing field a little. We’re going to go for round two in a moment, but this time, I’ll be periodically stopping FIGHTs and giving pointers wherever I see a problem. So be ready to be interrupted! NOW LINE UP!

* * *

 

“Someday, you guys are going to be sparring against me as well as each other. That day’s a ways off though. I’ll make proper fighters out of you all eventually, I swear!

Anyway, your homework this week will be to do the warmups at least twice, and to study the videos I’ve sent to your emails. For the sake of the humans, I’ve included some videos of monster greetings and monster duels; if you’ve been paying attention in this class, you should be able to tell one from the other, and should reply to the email with which ones are which. For the monsters, there’s some videos of various forms of human sport-fighting! I’ve also included one fake sport-fighting video just to keep you on your toes; monsters should try to identify the fake fight. And as a bonus, there’s a video of one of my sparring sessions with Ambassador Frisk. I want you all to pay close attention to that one, because it’s an absolutely amazing display of technique on both sides. Notice what works and what doesn’t, what’s effective and what’s ineffective, and see if it helps your own technique at all. I know you’ll all come back with something to surprise me! CLASS DISMISSED!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise! I figured out a way to explain the black and white effect that actually works with canon!
> 
> We all know what the red SOUL is: Determination. The power to change fate. Now, it probably wasn’t always straight-up time travel like it is with Frisk, but the ability to always find the optimal set of decisions to lead you to the best timeline is a feature of red-souled humans, as is avoiding death. Basically, it's the power of the protagonist. As for who knows about red souls: Sans and Asgore definitely know. Toriel and Gerson (and any other monster old enough to remember the War) probably know. Alphys might have figured it out through inference but she doesn’t know for sure; she might not have figured out the connection between the red SOUL and an overload of Determination and might have just thought it was common among all humans; she never had a red SOUL to experiment on after all.
> 
> As for the videos, in the sparring video, Undyne is using spheres of water rather than spears of water, and Frisk is basically playing tag while dodging them. Also, Undyne included both a pro-wrestling video and an anime fight scene in the “human fight” videos. The correct answer was obviously the wrestling, since anime is real and all.


	4. Trust and MERCY

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case this was somewhat ambiguous, some classes take place "offscreen", and I'm only writing the more interesting and important ones. Undyne wouldn't be dropping a lot of what she's going to drop in this chapter on students who've only had 4 classes with her! I've made some minor edits to previous chapters to make this slightly more clear.

“Last week I said that we were going to work on disabling techniques this week, but I was sort of lying. I WILL be teaching some reliable techniques for disabling humans, both with physical attacks and bullets, but monsters are… inconsistent about the best way to subdue them. We could go over every single type of monster individually, but that would take all week. Instead, let’s focus on the  _ type  _ of attack that works on any monster.

Now, if your name is Frisk, the best way to subdue a monster is to have a pleasant conversation with them while dodging flawlessly, but not everyone has their diplomatic talent or their dodging skill, so we’ll have to try something a bit messier. Now, I should reiterate something from the first day: if there’s a choice between fighting and running from a fight, JUST RUN! But circumstances could conspire against you; you could be trapped, or injured, or you could have someone with you who can’t run as fast as you can. Sometimes there’s no choice but to FIGHT. But there are ways to FIGHT  _ and _ have MERCY at the same time. You already know about how fragile monsters are when faced with strong killing intent. Fortunately, this also works with the intent to disable someone nonlethally. In fact, have you ever seen one of those kung fu movies where people get knocked out with one karate chop? That doesn’t actually work in real life on humans. But if you temper your intentions perfectly, it  _ will _ work on most monsters! Heck, I’ve done it a few times and I don’t even have a human SOUL! Now granted, that kind of technique probably wouldn’t work on me, but that’s only because I have special training to resist it, and as far as I know the only other monsters with that training are the rest of the Royal Guard and any monster old enough to have actually fought in The War. And since I know all of them personally and can vouch for their character, if you have a problem with  _ them, _ you probably deserve whatever comes next!

So the important factor is the  _ intent _ . If you want to knock a monster out when you hit them and you feel that desire in your SOUL, there’s a pretty good chance you will. But that’s also the problem with this technique; your mind might say “knock out” while your SOUL says “eliminate”, especially if you or someone you love is in danger. THAT DOESN’T MAKE YOU A BAD PERSON! No one chooses their own instincts, and millions of years of evolutionary biology is not easy to set aside in the heat of the moment! Still though, this is just another reason to NOT FIGHT if you have the choice! 

For obvious reasons, I can't really simulate an actual dangerous situation to practice with. Well, I suppose I  _ could,  _ but that would be unethical and most likely illegal! Instead, we’re going to do the next best thing: build good habits! If you practice tempered strikes often enough, they  _ become _ your new instinct! So, along with improving your technique, today we’re going to work on intent and control. These targets can measure your approximate power in battle, including your intent, and give you a rating from 1 to 10. You want to aim for the higher end of the middle; basically anything between 4 and 7. Now remember, if you’re scoring too low or too high, you might need to hit harder or less hard, but more likely, you just need to really FEEL YOUR STRIKE IN YOUR SOUL MORE! Or less, if you’re scoring too high."

* * *

 

“Now that we know how to disable a monster, we’re going to work on some anti-human techniques! For humans, this is probably the closest we’re going to get to a traditional martial arts course. Arm locks, takedowns, disarming, that sort of thing. For the monsters though, things are going to get a bit more unconventional.

If you were trying to disable another monster, the first things you’d go for would be either a bullet cage or binding magic. However, most human SOULs are strong enough to break out of binding magic easily, and a bullet cage will only work against someone who is sane, rational, and afraid of pain enough to not just tank the hits and run right through! That’s not a safe assumption to make if someone is attacking you unprovoked! So we’re going to use something different. As I said last week, a hit to the groin is both painful and generally nonlethal, and that applies to both physical attacks and bullets. This isn’t the most reliable or easy method though. It’s a pretty small target, and a human with good enough pain resistance will just get pissed off! Hits to the limbs are also no-gos. While a physical hit to a limb will work just as well as it would for a human, you don’t want to be that close to an assailant in the first place! As for magic, bullets don’t actually affect the physical area you hit very much, damaging the SOUL directly instead. The little amount they DO is enough to make a groin hit effective and will  _ sometimes _ trip someone up, but it’s not something you should rely on! Now, you  _ can _ direct your bullets to a human’s weapon in an attempt to destroy it or disarm them, but this is also very unreliable, since you’re basically trying to hit a target that’s both moving and usually very small. Besides that, a human can still be dangerous to a monster even with no weapon if they’re violent enough!

So what does all this boil down to? Well, as far as nonlethal disabling options go, monsters are kind of out of luck… or you would be if not for me! Today, you all have the privilege of being taught my secret Royal Guard human capturing technique! I originally came up with it for when I thought that breaking the Barrier was going to mean another war, but I’ve since repurposed it as a holding technique instead! It’s a pretty simple technique, but it  _ is  _ pretty hard to master. For the purposes of getting away from a fight though, even the most basic form will work.

So, here’s the technique: first, you  _ have _ to be in a fight with the human. If you can’t see a human’s SOUL, this won’t work on them. I’m going to assume that this won’t be a problem, because you shouldn’t need this technique unless you’re already under attack! Next, gather up some green shielding magic, but don’t form it into a shield. Form it into a bullet or weapon instead. This is the hard part, and I don’t expect any of you to get it on the first try.  Now, if you hit with that bullet or weapon, it’ll temporarily infuse the human’s SOUL with green magic, which causes it to enter a sort of defensive lockdown state. While they’re in this state they’ll actually be  _ more _ resistant to magic than normal, but it also roots them to the spot! Well, not completely. They’ll still be able to move and block, maybe even lash out at you if you get too close, but what they won’t be doing is running or chasing. That’s your opportunity to put some distance between them and you. Get away, get help, get them to calm down, whatever seems most appropriate for the situation. Just remember: this is  _ temporary _ . It’ll last longer if you put more juice into the initial hit, but considering how hard it can be to do this technique in the first place, I wouldn’t expect it to last more than a few seconds. Oh, and hitting with it again won’t make it last any longer; while they’re in lockdown mode, it won’t have any effect on them, so if you want to do it again you have to wait until it wears off.

So, monsters, start trying to form your lockdown attack! We’ll test how effective it is after I teach the humans some takedowns! BY DEMONSTRATION!”

* * *

 

“Oh dang, is it already… Well, looks like we’re out of time this week. So, special homework this week: monsters, add some practice with your lockdown attack to the usual warmup regimen. Humans, try and find someone to help you keep your submission techniques sharp and practice them. It can be someone else from this class, or a friend or family member, but I suggest offering to teach them and let them have a turn if you do that, since treating someone like your training dummy without letting them do the same back to you would be pretty unfair!

Now, before we wrap up for the day, I want to ask something important of all the humans here. Ambassador Frisk has started a special human/monster relations program, and gave me the green light to include you all in it if you want to be included.

These SOUL-design pins are special for two reasons: firstly, they’re enchanted, so they’ll provide a small amount of protection against monster bullets. Not nearly as much as proper magic armor of course, but some. Secondly, they are a sign to all monsters that you are a human, that you have training to dodge monster bullets, and that you want to be greeted by monsters you know in the traditional manner of monsters; in other words, with a demonstration of magic.

This isn’t your homework or anything. If you don’t want to participate, that’s perfectly fine. But I’ll repeat what I said on day one: there is no better way for a monster to express themselves than with magic. I guarantee it’ll make it easier to get to know a monster and understand them better. Who knows, they might learn something about you by the way you respond to it! So if all our sparring sessions have made you comfortable enough around magic that you’d be willing to face it outside this class, wear one of these pins somewhere visible and you may get to see what an expression of a monster’s SOUL looks like outside of a spar!

Oh right, also don’t worry about getting caught off guard by a greeting. The other big rule of greeting a human with one of these pins is to ask first. 

So, I encourage all of you to take a pin that matches the color of your SOUL. You don’t have to wear it now, or ever, but I hope you’ll all give it a try. It’s a unique opportunity to bridge a cultural gap, see amazing displays of magic, and make some new friends all at the same time! 

Anyway, that’s all for this week. CLASS DISMISSED!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alphys helped come up with that evolutionary biology line. She also helped come up with the secret technique back in the Underground, since she was studying the human SOULs and Undyne needed a capture technique.


End file.
